By Matthew Nguyen, Staff Writer
In a year that featured royal family disputes, bloodthirsty symbiotes, 4th-wall breaking vigilantes and the eradication of half of the entire universe, it is easy to see how a simple animated story highlighting the “other” Spider-Man could get lost in the shuffle. However, Sony’s Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, leaves it’s own mark on 2018, giving viewers a refreshing break from an overly saturated superhero genre with its unique presentation and daring choice of protagonist
Breaking from the traditional norm, directors Peter Ramsey, Robert Persichetti Jr., and Rodney Rothman decided to “take a leap of faith,” and focus their movie on not the widely known, O.G spiderman Peter Parker, but instead on the unknown teenage boy-turned superhero, Miles Morales. While yes, Peter does make an appearance in this film and does play an integral part within the story, it is safe to say that the movie’s main protagonist and focal point is most definitely Miles.
This decision was a huge risk. First off, many were not sure there was even a suitable market for a Spider-Man movie not centered around Peter Parker, as all 6 of the previous spider-man films featured some kind of iteration of the character. Secondly, many were worried whether or not the audience would be receptive to yet another spider-man film as it comes off the backs of Spider-Man: Homecoming, which had been released one year prior, and Venom, which had been released only one month prior. Yet, against the odds, Ramsey, Persichetti and Rothman team together to create a masterpiece that perfectly captures the essence of a comic book film.
The animation is absolutely amazing from the very start. While yes, it is visually stunning, what really puts it over the top is the precise attention to detail. You can notice throughout the film that the animation seems blurred and distorted whenever the scenes changed and that it takes nearly half a second before it can focus into clarity. This was not an animation error, but a calculated artistic decision made to give off an illusion of flipping through a comic book. These small, subtle design details really draws in the viewers and allow this film to not only be good, but great.
The comedy within the entire movie was also on point. The comedic timing of a joke never felt off or weird and a punchline never fell flat throughout the course of the film. Even during the stories most intense climactic moment, the subtle joke about spider-pig’s final words before returning to his universe had me in tears. The movie also had multiple call backs to previous spider-man films and seemed to almost parody itself. The opening sequence was littered with references to Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man, such as the awkward dancing scene or the iconic upside-down kiss scene. The end-credit scene was also hilarious and entirely worth the wait.
Story wise, the movie’s plot is pretty generic. There’s not many twists or turns and it’s almost too straight forward and predictable. Bad guy loses family, bad guy works to recover his lost family, bad guy becomes consumed by his goals, bad guy is stopped by good guys. The movie even acknowledges this when Peter explains to Miles how this is just normal Spider-Man stakes and correctly predicts ensuing dialogue between the villains. Speaking of the villains, the main antagonists in this film seem more like fanfare then actual significant characters with depth. While it was cool to see such characters as the Green Goblin and Doctor Octopus, I found myself not caring much about any of the villains besides the prowler (which was only because he was Mile’s uncle), and even found myself forgetting they were part of the movie in the first place.
However, the movie’s strength is not within its plot and instead can be found through the deep and meaningful character development seen in both Miles Morales and Peter Parker. For Miles, we could see how he develops and matures throughout the film. While he may have gotten the powers early on, Miles never really finds himself in order to truly become spider-man until the the final act. The movie does a really good job of showing the viewer’s Miles’ youthful age and lack of preparation. For example, during the house invasion scene, it is clearly evident that while Miles may talk a big game, saying how he’s ready to destroy the transdimensional machine, when faced with a dire situation, he choked. He was more detrimental to the Spider-gang than helpful and arguably played a large role in his uncle’s death. However, through a quick talk from both Peter and his father along with some self reflection, Miles was able to truly embrace his powers and finally become spider-man just before the climax of the film.
Peter, in this story, acts as the primary foil for Miles. They represent two completely different sides of the superhero spectrum. Miles, being a hopeful upstart filled to the brim with confidence and optimism, was a direct contrast to Peter, the hardened veteran who understood the realities of what it really meant to be spider-man. At first, I had been particular bothered by this charachter as his selfish actions and brash demeanor rubbed me the wrong way. However,as the story progressed and we began to learn more about him, I began to look underneath the underneath, I began to see the true hero inside of Parker.
While it may not seem obvious at first, as Peter is presented as an immature, irresponsible, oaf who fails to properly mentor his young apprentice, it could be seen that there’s actually much more to the character than what we are given at surface value. For example, we know that he isn’t an incapable hero as he immediately begins to formulate plans on the spot after being fed information from Miles, and we also know he’s not entirely irresponsible and selfish as he was willingly to lay down his life in order for his comrades to return home and again in order to save Miles. His rude, aloof exterior was a defensive mechanism developed from losing many closed loved ones. Peter was a highlight for me in this films as he showed that even superhero are effected by humane issues such as divorce and death. However Miles, ever the optimist, breaks through his hardened shield and teaches Peter how to care once again.
All in all, this was one of my favorite movies of the year. I enjoyed nearly every second of the film due to its charismatic character that just pop out the screen and an alluring animation style that really do the comic books justice. Many of the characters fulfill satisfying character arcs that truly seemed earned and not forced like many origin films have the tendency to be. It may be recency bias, but this movie has already slid to the top of my spider-man moving rankings (and maybe my superhero movie rankings) and I would strongly recommend this movie not only to comic book and superhero fanatics, but to everybody out there. Sony seems to have slammed a home run with this one, both critically and financially as it scored a 97% on Rotten Tomatoes and $35.4 million dollars in its opening weekend (A box office record for animated movies released in December). Hopefully Spider-man: Into the Spider-Verse will be the first of many strings that’ll connect to form an entire new web of superhero movies.
